Lightsaber Exercises

[naashar]

Indeed! Any input you guys have would be appreciated.

[supertrogdor]

If you are serious about wanting to learn to use a saber most effectively you need to be ready to dedicate a LOT of time to learning how to hit the right spot.
Granted i am no master swordsman, but i can give you a few things to do if you want to spend the time learning it right.
Here is SuperTrogdor's approach to learning how to fight with a saber. This may not be what others have posted, nor may they agree with what i say, but if you were to train with me, this is how it would start.
**note** a fair chunk of this will not be fun, but is necessary if you want to learn to do it right.
you have a few basic attacks which have been mentioned previously:
vertical downward--targeting the head
45ish angled downward --targeting head or either shoulder
horizontal strike--targeting elbows or midriff
stab--targeting solar plexus

Here is the not-so-fun part
spend 10 minutes on each of these attacks walking accross your lawn or a gym floor or wherever you have to practice. This will take you about an hour to run through these attacks. Take one step per attack, work on the timing so that as you take your step as your heel hits the ground/floor is the instant the strike is delivered. Keep a pretty wide stance(just outside shoulder width) and move your feet in a straight line, don't bob in and out. The stance will not be comfortable at first, but you will get used to it. At the end of each step you should have both feet pointing forward, just outside shoulder width and a minimum of one of your feet lengths between your front foot heel and your rear foot toe.
Now keeping all that in mind Make sure you are striking to the same place every time. Intentially pick an immaginary target make your step and strike to hit your target. Every time! At first the target should not move. Someone your height, same target every time, every swing, or stab as the case may be.
You may notice, that there is very little(read NOTHING) in the way of flashy spins and fun to watch things(with the exception of you are swinging an illuminated saber which is always fun to watch).
After about 40 or 50 hours of this, you should be rather proficient in the basic movements, if you have been starting nice and easy with not a lot of grunt and ooomph in your practice, working mostly on precision, timing and correct form. Continue with these basic excercises a little with every training session. Now it is time to engage a buddy that has been doing all these basic attacks with you all along. Here are where the aforementioned accelerations start to come to play. Go back and forth with a buddy for 50-100 hours on a series of attacks listed above. Have a designated attacker and defender and go back and forth over and over again for hours and hours.
Now is the time when it gets fun--since we are a few hundred hours into our training we can start attacking randomly with our training buddy/buddies. At this point you have spent enough time working on basics to know that you are not really going to hurt each other and even still, accidents happen... you have been warned...
Take your buddy and practice some one on one, define attacker and defender, but don't take memorized routines. Go for any of the attack zones at random and work on defending and precision.
After another few hundred hours is when you both will have real fun with free sparring with your sabers. That is when you start to get creative with how to attack and can i score a hit on my buddy. You will likely catch them when they try some cool spinny trick in an attempt to look cool but get killed(virtually, in actuality they get a nice bruise) Here is where fighting is no longer a messy brawl, but a veritable chess match of how to bait your oponent into opening him/her self into making a mistake.

I have always said it doesn't matter what style of fighting you choose... when two masters compete, the first one to make a mistake looses.

IF that doesn't give you a few years worth of spare time occupation towards really learning how to fight with a saber, well then you should probably join a GumDo class.
Cheers

[Jedi Belinos]

I am in the process of starting up a Wiki site off of my main website that will contain info about sword play for the lightsaber to basic stretches all the way to containing links for other things. Anybody is welcome to contribute so that we can make it grow. I do not want to compete with other sites that are already up and doing really well I just want a place to collect the information that I find and some that I write down. I will be setting up some basic pages in the next few days. If you would like to contribute please e-mail me at jedibelinos at safritsound dot com.

Edit: here is the link for anybody who would like to see what I have already started. http://www.safritsound.com/wiki

[naashar]

Super..not to worry. Those of us who've kept this thread alive harbor no illusions. Nick Jamilla, he of "Shimmering Sword" fame, summed up the training process as the mind's way of making sure the body is not lazy, in so many words. A lot of the "half-handed" movements our bodies tend to want to gravitate towards are very contrary to the prescription of formal training. I say all that to say we must remain "Ever-Vigilant".

**edit: Jedi Belinos, that is a great start! Please, update us as you enrich your content on the site...

[Mor-El Kesav]

Jedi Belinos, supertrogdor, Greetings Y'all! Jedi Belinos, love the hills! I have a spread just outside Maggie Valley myself. If you have been to the Clan Muir tent at the Flora McDonald Games then we have indeed met. I look foward to reading and contributing to your wiki. Those of us who love to study the art of the lightsaber can never have too much information!

supertrogdor, good posting. That is the work out regimen I started with and it is still part of my daily workouts.

NYJedi, welcome back. I saw that you joined the CSA forums. As James said; All of you, please feel free to contribute, we welcome your expertise on the forums. The greater the flow of information, the more we will all learn and enjoy our chosen passion.

Master Zhi Don, I'm pleased to see that you are getting back into your teachings. I trust your wife is doing better?

Has anyone else started reading "Shimmering Swords"? I got my copy two days ago and I'm deep into it. Thanks for the recommendation Master Na'Ashar.

[naashar]

No problem. Again, I'm looking forward to our discourse on the material. If you want, we can start early, take it segment by segment. I've a feeling that you and I are similar though: I prefer to ingest the material in its entirety first...

[Mor-El Kesav]

We are of a similar bend of mind on that one. I should have it finished off shortly and then we can begin the discussion. If any wants to start on the first part of the book, we can go for it.

I'd like to see him do a revised edition to include the prequel films as they expanded the philosophy, technique, and dicipline exponentially over the original series. Just tonight I rewatched the fight sequence between Obi Wan and Anakin, analyzing it for tips and flaws in the technique. Nick Gillard really should write a definitive book on the style.

[naashar]

Indeed! He's proven most illusive; the films are the only record I can really find on his work! Mayhaps he is like us, enjoyment for the sake of enjoyment, and doesn't see the need to "wax poetic" on his passion.

[Ronin]

Hey guys, this is a great thread, I just want to say that.

I had been thinking about all the interviews and specials I had seen in the last 5 years with Nick Gilliard and he always says the same stuff about lightsaber combat. That he cultivated it from so many thngs i.e. tennis, golf, wood splitting, kendo, fencing, escrima, caporia, and I am sure a myriad of others. Compiling it or at least trying to make something real and important out of it must be a dauntnig task and I commend all of you.
I cannot say I have any delusions either. I attained my Shodan in kendo last year and am working on my C rank in Foil and Saber fencing. I really appreciate all the work you guys have done here. I would be awesome if there was a Jedi acadamy somewhere around here, someday...

[naashar]

Welcome to the thread, Ronin! Feel free to contribute as you see fit, m'friend. As to your other "wish"...

http://www.carolinasaberacademy.org/

Buy your parts for your 'saber here, then join us there to use 'em!